Chariots of Tyre - Egypt vs Assyria at Historicon 2014

Ken B and I had been planning to run a Chariot Wars battle at Historicon using the recently released Pulse of Battle rules by Brent Oman. The rules belong to the Field of Battle family from Piquet, Inc. Unfortunately, real life conspired at the last minute to prevent Ken from being there Thurday night, so I added my Assyrian army to the car, and we played a straight forward, head on game on the sands of Palestine, without any terrain to speak of.  We'll try for the real thing again next year!

The Egyptians, from their right to left were:  Tim C (London),  Ian,  Gabriel

The Assyrians, from their left to right were:   Phil,  Peter (yours truly), Alex

Overview of the Egyptian deployment

Overview of the Assyrian Deployment

Left to right, Tim C (of London), Ian, and Gabriel start the first Egyptian MOVE.

Left to right, Assyrian players were Alex, Peter (moi, empty chair) and Phil. 

The Egyptian Chariots surge forward on the Egyptian far right.

Egyptian Mace/Axe men charge forward, sending the Assyrian Slingers to the rear, and engaging the Assyrian Heavy Archers in Melee.

Overview of the table, early game. The repulsed Egyptian macemen can be seen in the upper middle ground. 

Egyptian light Chariots are trying Io turn the Assyrian left flank. 

Chariots on both side loose arrows, to little effect. 

The Egyptian Chariots have gained the flank on the Assyrian Right!

View of the Assyrian Center, early battle. The white clad macemen and Quradu (Assyrian Royal Guards) are part of my center command, along with the light green clad LI archers, HI Slingers, and HI Spearmen.

Chariots to our rear now, Sire!

Almost like a pinwheel over on the Assyrian righg flank. 

The Assyrian HC and LCh are nearly surrounded!

The stand of on the Assyrian right flank continued much of the game. 

The Assyrian HC on their left flank has moved forward to gain some breathing room, while the Assyrian Light Chariots have backed up to do likewise. Someone made the "beep, beep, beep" sound as they did so, which cracked us all up! "Priceless!"

"Wait, that wasn't supposed to be MY head that got chopped of!   Arrrgh!" 

Phil's left center infantry commander kisses the sand!

View from the Assyrian right; the Sherdan Guards of Egypt are moving to attack; they would prove to be very effective!

My center infantry command has largely destroyed their Egyptian opposite numbers....

I have shifted my Reserve command to bolster Phil's crumbling left flank, but left the Macemen exposed to a flank charge, which Tim happily provided!

Interesting exercise in geometry on the Assyrian left. Where is Pythagoras when you need him? 

Talk about a tight spot!

Some breathing room now!

The Egyptian center is very weakly held, barely, by some light infantry ("Psiloi", in Pulse of Battle terms).

However, on the Assyrian right, the Egyptians are pressing the attack. 

The Sherdan Guards (light blue shields) can be seen charging some Assyrian HI spearmen at the top of the picture. 

"Three rocks and a wolf"; as bad as a unit can be without being routed. Those Sherdans were TOUGH!

The Assyrian Heavy Chariots charge some Egyptian Archers in the flank, but fail to run them over, so they turn to face their attackers. 

More geometric problems, "left to the student to complete as an exercise". Note the complete absence of any Egyptian units in the entire center; my LI archers pluckily harassed Ramses himself! Despite this the Assyrians were at zero Morale chips, and stayed tat way for almost an entire turn (which is a long, long time in Pulse of Battle)!

Final position on the Assyrian right. Alex, rolling for Esarhadon, King of Assyria, passed his first two Army Morale Checks, and we even got the Egyptians down to zero morale points briefly, but the third time was the charm, and the Assyrians retired to Nineveh to lick their wounds!

Here are the forces used in the game, with the ratings I rolled up for them:

New Kingdom Egyptians - Pulse of Battle

Unit	Type	Rating	Divis.	Cmd	DD	CD	UI
LI Bowmen	Psiloi	Exper	Re	.	D6	D8	2
Egypt Archers	Lt Bow Inf.	Crack	Re	.	D8	D10	3
Egypt Macemen	Med Inf.	Crack	Re	.	D8	D12	4
Chariots	Lt Chariots	Elite	Re	.	D10	D10	3
LI Bowmen	Psiloi	Raw	Amun	.	D4	D8	2
Nubia Archers	Lt Bow Inf.	Exper	Amun	.	D6	D10	3
Egypt Spearmen	Medium Inf.	Exper	Amun	.	D6	D12+1	4
Chariots	Lt Chariots	Crack	Amun	.	D8	D8	3
LI Bowmen	Psiloi	Raw	Seti	.	D4	D8	2
Egypt Archers	Lt Bow Inf.	Exper	Seti	.	D6	D10	3
Egypt Spearmen	Medium Inf.	Exper	Seti	.	D6	D10	4
Chariots	Lt Chariots	Crack	Seti	.	D8	D8	3
LI Bowmen	Psiloi	Raw	Ptah	.	D4	D8	2
Egypt Archers	Lt Bow Inf.	Raw	Ptah	.	D4	D8	3
Egypt Macemen	Medium Inf.	Raw	Ptah	.	D4	D10	4
Chariots	Lt Chariots	Exper	Ptah	.	D6	D10	3
Sherden Guards	HI Warband	Crack	Res	.	D8	D12	4
Sherden Guards	HI Warband	Crack	Res	.	D8	D10	4
Egypt Macemen	Med Inf.	Exper	Res	.	D6	D12	4

Name	Command	Rating	LD	Radius
Pharaoh Ramses II	Army	Average	D12	24”
Hesy-Re	1	Average	D10	20”
Amenhotep	2	Average	D10	20”
Setau	3	Average	D10	20”
Ptahmose	4	Average	D8	16”

Neo-Assyrians - Pulse of Battle

Unit	Type	Rating	Cmd	DD	CD	UI
Yellow Slingers	Psiloi	Raw	2	D4	D8	2
Lt Green Archers	Psiloi	Raw	3	D4	D8	2
White Archers	Psiloi	Raw	4	D4	D8	2
Orange Hvy Archers	Med Bow Inf	Exper	2	D6	D10	4
Purple Hvy Archers	Med Bow Inf	Exper	4	D6	D10	4
Lt Green Hvy Sling	Med Bow Inf	Exper	3	D6	D10	4
Orange Hvy Spears	Hvy Infantry	Exper	2	D6	D12+1	4
Lt Green Hvy Spear	Hvy Infantry	Exper	3	D6	D12	4
Purple Hvy Spears	Hvy Infantry	Exper	4	D6	D10	4
Blue LMI Spears	Peltasts	Raw	1	D4	D8	3
Yellow LMI Spears	Peltasts	Raw	5	D4	D8	3
White LHI Macemen	Hvy Infantry	Exper	C	D6	D12	4
Quradu Spears	Hvy Infantry	Elite	C	D8	D12+1	4
Heavy Chariots	Hvy Chariot	Elite	5	D8	D12+1	3
Light Chariots	Lt Chariots	Crack	1	D8	D8	3
Purple Hvy cavalry	Hvy Cavalry	Exper	1	D6	D12	3
Orange Hvy Cavalry	Hvy Cavalry	Exper	5	D6	D10	3

Name	Command	Rating	LD	Radius
Esarhaddon	Army (C)	Skilled	D12+1	26”
Margal	1	Average	D10	20”
Besxh	2	Average	D10	20”
Ishtar	3	Average	D10	20”
Shamash	4	Average	D12	24”
Ashurkanibal	5	Average	D8	16”